Questions have been raised by lawyers over the accuracy of speed cameras after a driver doing just 29 miles an hour was clocked as reaching 85 mph.

Delivery driver Thomas Baird was sent a court summons accusing him of speeding in a 30 mph zone in Talke, Staffs.

Now Staffordshire Police have withdrawn the prosecution and paid out £2,000 to cover the driver's legal costs.

The error has raised questions over the reliability of the camera and whether other drivers have been wrongly prosecuted.

Latest figures show the camera that caught Mr Baird snared 568 motorists between October, 2014 and the end of September.

Bobby Bell, director of BB Law, which represented Mr Baird, said: "The most concerning fact about this case is that the police apparently still have no idea as to how or why this device managed to over-calculate my client's speed by a whopping 56mph.

"This case undermines confidence in this camera and possibly even the reliability of this model of camera. The police should switch it off until they can provide an explanation for the error.

"They should test the reliability of this camera and get to the bottom of why it has produced an inaccurate reading, so they can determine whether this is a one-off or a wider problem."

Mr Baird's Ford van was snapped 'doing 85mph' at 11.59am on December 1."This case is a stark reminder that these supposedly infallible devices can produce inaccurate and unreliable evidence"Mr Bell

The driver, who lives in Leicester, received a Notice of Intended Prosecution and immediately contested the matter with the police's safer roads team. But he was told he would have to wait for the case to go to court and was issued with a court summons in March.

Mr Bell said: "Gatso cameras take two photos which are 0.5 seconds apart. We calculated the true speed of the vehicle by making an application to Staffordshire Police for a copy of the second photograph.

"Once the police disclosed this we were able to calculate the speed by reference to the physical markings on the carriageway, proving he had been travelling at a maximum of 29.08mph.

"If the suggested reading had not been so high Mr Baird probably would have just paid the fine. There aren't many people who can spend the time, effort and money fighting something they think the police are likely to win.

"This case is a stark reminder that these supposedly infallible devices can produce inaccurate and unreliable evidence."

Police today acknowledged speed cameras can give inaccurate readings. Office staff check each case by comparing the two photos taken by the device. But in this case staff repeatedly failed to pick up the error.

Almost 14,000 drivers were issued with court proceedings in the past year after being caught speeding by cameras.

Superintendent Simon Tweats added: "This is the only time this type of error, to the best of our knowledge, has not been picked up prior to going to court. This was a one-off individual error."

(my bold etc).Q1- A one off - have they investigated .Q2- WHY did nobody check to see if this was an error,or did they hope the driver would just pay up?

_________________lets bring sanity back to speed limits.Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

This is really bad and not rare. We had a case locally about a year ago, where a stationary car parked in a layby, while the driver was in a shop, was sent a ticket and it turned out the camera was supposedly triggered by a motorbike.

How many innocent drivers, nationwide, are paying up because they haven't checked or have been put off contesting because of court costs?

_________________My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

This is nothing new, gastos can be fooled by vibrations in large flat panels, e.g. the rear of a delivery van. Wasn't there a similar case a few years back involving a caravan?

The ticket isn't supposed to go out until someone has checked both photos, it's just sloppy work from the camera partnership. You'd expect someone who spends all day every day checking these photos to know at first glance that he wasn't doing the recorded speed.

Yes, how stupid do you have to be to think..."that blokes going a bit fast in that lay by"....

Obviously some photos aren't being checked at all.

_________________My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Questions have been raised by lawyers over the accuracy of speed cameras after a driver doing just 29 miles an hour was clocked as reaching 85 mph...................Superintendent Simon Tweats added: "This is the only time this type of error, to the best of our knowledge, has not been picked up prior to going to court. This was a one-off individual error."

What he's saying here sound like that there are many cases of error that simply aren't 'caught' before the NIP goes out, not that it doesn't happen.Not that cameras are any good to proper road safety, but very little is error free. Time automated speed camera's were removed and crushed.

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